Battlefield 3 and Plants vs. Zombies are "On the House" at Origin

Today is the day you get Battlefield 3 ! Why, you ask? Because today is the day you can pick it up at absolutely zero cost—that is to say, free—as the second game in Origin's "On the House" program.

Electronic Arts unveiled "On the House" in March with a Dead Space giveaway and implied that there might be an element of randomness to the thing, saying that OTH freebies "can appear and disappear at any time." Today's announcement of Battlefield 3 as the next OTH giveaway, on the other hand, suggests it something more regular, coming as it does almost exactly one month after Dead Space, but does it matter? I say, no. I say that free is free, and I'll take it wherever and whenever I can.

And no worries if you already have Battlefield 3, because there's a Plan B: Plants vs. Zombies , which has also been marked down to zero. That is perhaps somewhat less compelling as deals go since it's only five bucks at regular price and just about everyone on the planet already owns it anyway, but again, free is free—and to be perfectly honest, if you haven't played either of them and for some odd reason can only get one, I'd actually recommend Plants vs. Zombies. It really is a brilliant game.

Andy covers the day-to-day happenings in the big, wide world of PC gaming—the stuff we call "news." In his off hours, he wishes he had time to play the 80-hour RPGs and immersive sims he used to love so much.